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Amputation

Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery.

Some types of amputation are foot amputations, ankle disarticulation,
below-knee amputation, knee-bearing amputation, above knee amputation, hip
disarticulation, amputation of digits, metacarpal amputation, wrist
disarticulation, forearm amputation, elbow disarticulation, above-elbow
amputation, and shoulder disarticulation and forequarter amputation.

Some amputees experience the phenomenon of phantom limbs; they feel body
parts that are no longer there. These limbs can itch, ache, and feel as if
they are moving. Some scientists believe it has to do with a kind of neural
map that the brain has of the body, which sends information to the brain
about limbs regardless of their existence.

Amputation is usually done for medical reasons, but in some countries also
as official punishment. A few people have an "amputation fetish", feeling
that they are not "complete" until they have a certain part amputated.
Psychologists describe the little understood disorder as sexual in origin.

In rare cases one of somebody's limbs gets stuck in a deserted place, the
person has no means of communication, and there is nobody to help or to get
help, and therefore the victim carries out an amputation on him- or herself:

In 2003 27-year old Aron Ralston amputated his forearm using his
pocket-knife and breaking and tearing the two bones, after the arm got stuck
under a boulder when hiking in Utah.

A month later, an Australian coal miner amputated his own arm with a Stanley
knife after it became trapped when the front-end loader he was driving
overturned three kilometers underground.

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